Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are most likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of the machines.
Consequently, shrewd operators strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and, hence, increase profitability to the operator. In the competitive gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games, or enhancements to existing games, which will attract frequent play by enhancing the entertainment value and excitement associated with the game.
One concept that has been successfully employed to enhance the entertainment value of a game is that of a “secondary” or “bonus” game which may be played in conjunction with a “basic” game. The bonus game may comprise any type of game, either similar to or completely different from the basic game, and is entered upon the occurrence of a selected event or outcome of the basic game. Such a bonus game produces a significantly higher level of player excitement than the basic game because it provides a greater expectation of winning than the basic game.
Another concept that has been employed is the use of a progressive jackpot. In the gaming industry, a “progressive” game involves collecting coin-in data from participating gaming device(s) (e.g., slot machines), contributing a percentage of that coin-in data to a jackpot amount, and awarding that jackpot amount to a player upon the occurrence of a certain jackpot-won event. A jackpot-won event typically occurs when a “progressive winning position” is achieved at a participating gaming device. If the gaming device is a slot machine, a progressive winning position may, for example, correspond to alignment of progressive jackpot reel symbols along a certain payline. The initial progressive jackpot is a predetermined minimum amount. That jackpot amount, however, progressively increases as players continue to play the gaming machine without winning the jackpot. Further, when several gaming machines are linked together such that several players at several gaming machines compete for the same jackpot, the jackpot progressively increases at a much faster rate, which leads to further player excitement. In existing progressive jackpots, the progressives are often high-pay, low-frequency progressives, which may result in some players becoming disheartened when they do not win.
Current progressive games fail to provide real-time representations of progressive amounts that visually stimulate a player's anticipation to provide a more pleasurable and entertaining gaming experience. Some current representations of progressive amounts are generally shown as static images, e.g., a bag of money having a fixed size. Although the progressive amount may increase or decrease during a particular time period, the size of the image does not change. A problem with this type of representations is that it tends to provide an uneventful gaming experience. Also, it can be difficult for some players to read that actual amount of the progressive jackpot.
Another problem with some current progressive games is that real-time information regarding the most current progressive amounts is not readily available to the player. For example, a type of progressive games displays a pre-rendered image, which represents the progressive jackpot, that updates only at predetermined intervals. Thus, there are time periods during which the player is unaware of any changes that might have occurred to the progressive jackpot. Depending on the size of the progressive amount at a particular time, the player may choose to play for a high-pay, low-frequency, progressive jackpot or for a low-pay, high-frequency, progressive jackpot. However, because the player is not readily aware of the latest changes in the progressive amounts, the player might get frustrated with the game if an uninformed decision results in a loss. Consequently, some current progressive games provide a frustrating experience for the player.
Thus, there is a need to overcome the problems associated with the way progressive amounts are represented to a player. The present invention is directed to satisfying this and other needs.